Little Complexities
by Scandalacious Intentions
Summary: A series of prompted more-than-drabbles less-than-one-shots centring around a most complex relationship.
1. Know

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the computer I write on.**

**A/N: I'm back. So these are prompted but they're one-shots because me trying to write a drabble is like…it's just impossible okay. I needed something to get me back here because I miss Wicked. I'm hoping to update these once a week on Sundays from now on. The prompt list was put together from a collection of others by my lovely friend who had nothing better to do with her Saturday morning apparently.**

**A/N 2: For Dee, who nagged me until I got round to it. Thanks.**

**And now I'll just get on with it.**

**Know**

There was something about the Gilikin Forest; something decidedly sinister and despite the fact that Fiyero knew he was making his way through the dense wilderness with a woman who was more than capable of defending herself, he plastered on a false smile and a chipper nature and prayed to the Unnamed God that they wouldn't meet a bear. He wasn't terrifically good with bears. In fact, that was an understatement. He was terrified of them. He assumed that the plan (should they meet one) was to run as fast as possible in the opposite direction - or at least, that was what he was going to vote for.

"Elphaba?"

She turned to face him, her eyes wide. "Yes?" She pushed her hair behind her ears, businesslike. Good. He was glad she was taking this seriously.

"If we met a bear, who do you think could run faster?"

She stared at him, her face expressionless - or was she just incredulous? He smiled faintly - weakly, knowing doom was now imminent. "Are you serious?" she asked him.

"Idon'tlikethem," he mumbled and made to move forwards but Elphaba pulled him back, her fingers tightening around his wrist.

"What?"

"I don't like bears," he said softly.

"I didn't quite catch that."

"I'm scared of bears!"

Elphaba bit back her smile but her dark, twinkling eyes gave her away. She nodded. "Well, if it helps, Fiyero, you can run faster." He smiled back at her, pleased she wasn't mocking him. "But I can fly." With that, she took hold of the lantern and ploughed onwards. "Are you coming or not?"

The answer was a definite yes. If she thought she was leaving him out here on his own, a walking target in his Gale Force uniform, she could think on. After all, if the Gale Force found him, they'd kill him slowly and possibly torture him for information.

Or worse, he could find himself wandering - blissfully unaware - into bear territory, wherever that was. He gasped. Perhaps they were wandering into it now. He trotted to catch up. "Elphaba, do you know where we're going?"

Elphaba shook her head. "No. Why? Do you?"

"Well, don't you think it might be wise to consult a map or something? We could be wandering into…"

Elphaba gasped. "…Into bear caves? Fiyero, a Bear will know who I am and let you past and a bear, I can deal with."

Fiyero opened his mouth to argue but was immediately silenced by an arched eyebrow. He knew that look. He knew when to be quiet.

"Good," said Elphaba, smiling at him warmly. "Do you want the lantern back?"

Fiyero glanced towards it suspiciously. "Why?"

"It might make you feel like more of a man," she said, winking at him. "And aside from that, it's really rather heavy." She grinned, nudging him. "I just need someone to carry my things and follow me around, telling me how wonderful I am."

It was mostly the same job he had done for Glinda but at least Elphaba was joking…or he thought she was at least. He grinned back at her. "I'm your man. Shall I have the broom too?"

Elphaba laughed. "Not on your life."

He shrugged. "It was worth a try." He listened to her laugh echo around the empty forest; not a cackle but a chiming of bells. He walked ahead and without turning to face her, said, "I think you're perfect."

She took his hand and allowed him to lead her further into the forest. "I know." She blushed slightly. "I think you're mad."

"I know."


	2. Fire and Ice

**Disclaimer: See first chapter**

**Fire and Ice**

In many ways, it could be said that they were fire and ice. For one, they were exact opposites of one another. Elphaba was passionate and wild and Fiyero took a laissez-faire attitude to a vast majority of things and could come across as somewhat detached, choosing to antagonise Boq purely by ignoring his very existence. And also, perhaps more obviously, when Elphaba glared so much as vaguely in his direction, he melted. Into a little puddle. And oozed across the floor, taking the first exit available- which ended in a degree in Philosophy.

Certainly, what passed between them was not love, nor was it lust - after all, he was the swankified prince of the Vinkus and she was an uppity little artichoke. Indeed, it appeared to be the phenomenon known to many as dislike at first sight.

And at first, Fiyero was able to laugh it off and joke with the other boys about just what she would do to him. And then, sitting in Life Sciences one day, he was placed beside her and he realised that she did not dislike him at all. She hated him. She hated him with a burning passion. She was fire.

And he was the little quivering ice cube.

"Um…hello," he offered tentatively.

"Not interested," she snapped, scribbling fiercely.

He frowned. "I wasn't trying to sell you anything. I was introducing myself."

Elphaba slammed down her pencil and glared at him. "I know and I was letting you know that I wasn't at all interested in knowing you in any way, shape or form. You were trying to sell yourself or your friendship and I was telling you that I didn't want to know." Immediately, she returned to her note taking.

"Do you know," he said, looking down at her. "I feel rather snubbed."

Elphaba rolled her eyes behind her fringe. "My heart weeps for you, Master Tiggular."

She was a sarcastic, fiery and total bitch. Luckily, for him at least, no-one could bitch like Fiyero Tiggular. "Heart?"

She glared up at him. "Ah yes, I'm assuming you're the usual type. A heart, Master Tiggular, is metaphorically what enables people to feel. Of course, the organ itself is in no way connected with the conscience or you would be long dead. It's a shame really. However, the heart is what beats rather quickly when you fall in love or strain yourself. Well, I'm assuming you strain yourself by pretending to love a girl every night."

Icily polite, Fiyero replied, "Oh no. You're wrong there. Only six nights a week. Sunday is the day of rest, after all."

Elphaba laughed lightly. "Yes, I suppose you need some time to recover, or is that the day the date-rape drugs arrive?" She shocked him into silence and as a gesture of triumph, blew away the pieces of lead that had exploded from her pencil as it raced across her notebook. She turned the page of her textbook and glanced over at his. "We're on three-hundred-and-eight now," she informed him.

"I'm on three-hundred-and-eight," he shot back defensively.

"Pardon me then," she said, a strained smile gracing her face. "It just seemed to me that you were on the Contents page. I beg your forgiveness."

Hurriedly, he flicked through his pages, slapping them noisily together. She inhaled deeply through her nose and he smirked.

In many ways, it could be said they were fire and ice.


	3. Fight or Flight

**Disclaimer: See first chapter**

**Fight or Flight**

It was the closest he had got to her since she had accepted his poppies and boarded the train with his then-girlfriend. She had changed a great deal in a year. Her eyes blazed like charcoals and her nostrils flared. Her gaze was hard and soul-piercing. Fiyero shivered and wished he hadn't decided to try the business district alone. She may not be the Wicked Witch of the West but she was still a terrorist who had proved she was capable of killing a man.

"Elphaba?"

Her eyes narrowed and Fiyero wondered if this was because she was about to kill him or trying to place him. If anyone wanted his bet, he would place his pension on the former.

"What do you want?" she hissed, grabbing her broom. She acted on animalistic instinct. It was fight or flight and Fiyero began to wonder whether she was just as afraid of him as he was her.

"Please stay."

She pressed her lips together and her grip on the wooden handle tightened. She was ready to flee, and knowing so, she flashed her eyebrows, allowing him to go on.

"I don't want to hurt you." He gulped. In Elphaba's position, he wouldn't have believed it either. "I want to talk to you. I _need_ to talk to you."

Elphaba took a deep breath through her nose. "Who's with you?"

Fiyero shook his head. "No-one. I…I came to find you. I don't bring people when I really look."

Elphaba nodded. "You're in the Gale Force." It was a statement, not a question. "What can you possibly have to say to me?"

"That I want you to be safe."

Had Elphaba not been completely thrown by this, she would have laughed…loudly. Hysterically. Instead, her eyes widened and she nodded once. "Well, they haven't got me yet."

His heart throbbed with hope. Not 'you', not 'your lot' but 'they'. The 'them and us' dynamic built between them, Fiyero realised how horribly mistreated they had both been; Glinda too, he supposed, but she loved it. Of course, she was still Galinda some nights when it was horribly dark and cold and the nightmares returned, but more and more, she was smiling and waving and doing as she was told without protest. How long until she acted on her own initiative?

"Good to hear." He couldn't think of anything else to say. He was not as witty as she and judging by the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, she knew it too. "Elphaba, I-"

Elphaba raised her eyebrows and peered further into his forest green eyes, flecked with gold, the exact colour of his uniform. "You, what?"

"I…er…I really like your hat."

Elphaba pursed her lips. "What were you going to say?"

"How long will you be here?" It was as though he was suffering from verbal diarrhoea. It gushed past his lips before he had time to think about what he was saying. He sounded desperate. Although, he supposed that he was. He was desperate for company, desperate for sanity in this hell he lived in. He was desperate for her; the only like-minded person he had ever met.

Elphaba smiled grimly. "Now that you've found me and now that this conversation is over?" She met his eyes. "About thirty seconds." She mounted the broom and said, "Would you open that window for me?"

Fiyero made his way to the small window and covered the latch with his long fingers. "Will you come back?"

She shook her head.

"But your things are here?"

Elphaba smirked and pulled a large book from within the trappings of her cloak. Its cover was frayed and faded. The pages had yellowed with age. Frankly, Fiyero wouldn't have touched it without three pairs of gloves to protect his hands.

"I've got my hat," she said, smiling strangely. "I've got my broom and just to save your own neck tonight, just in case someone's seen you, for the love of the Unnamed God, limp back and spend tomorrow in bed moaning. It shouldn't be too difficult, you've had plenty of practise." The smile in her eyes made his heart physically ache. "And ask to speak to Morrible. Tell her I was here. Tell her I've taken the Grimmarie."

"What's-?"

She shushed him harshly. "You don't need to know that. She will know it and that's all that matters. Tell her I'm using it and that I've translated it."

Fiyero frowned. If that was true, why would she want him to tell the brains of the outfit and yet, if it were not true, why would she take it with her and hide it in her cloak?

"Does Morrible want that?"

Elphaba grinned. "You're getting a lot quicker, aren't you?"

He stared her out, the pain in his eyes inducing her long buried sympathy. "Is that thing the reason for all this?"

From the look in his eyes, she thought he wanted to burn it. She nodded. "Sort of. This and my stubborn nature." She bit her lip. "Can I trust you?"

"With your life."

Elphaba sighed. "Be careful. The people I trust and care about usually end up in a bad way." Realising she had said too much, she frowned. "Open the window and get home to Glinda."

He did as he was told, on all accounts, and as a result, spent the whole week pacing all night, barely sleeping and trying to decipher her words. Look to the Western Sky? People I care about end up in a bad way? No, not really stupid? What was she talking about? Why was she leaving him riddles?

It was fight or flight and he didn't have a broomstick.


	4. East meets West

**Disclaimer: See first chapter**

**A/N: These will be bi-weekly now after requests so updates will be Wednesdays and Sundays,**

**East Meets West**

Fiyero paced, wondering whether it would be a good idea to follow her. After all, she was a wanted fugitive and should she be seen, she would be killed. He couldn't live with himself if he allowed that to happen while he sat like a good little boy on the log she had told him to wait on.

But perhaps she was wrong. Houses flying through the sky? Well, it was a ridiculous notion, of course. Nessarose would be waiting for her, surprised to see her and wondering whether her sister had finally lost it. Yes, and then Elphaba would fly back. He tried to soothe the panic that set his blood on fire with these thoughts.

But a flying house was so ridiculous that it just might be plausible. If he was trying to find her, he would orchestrate a house flying through the sky. She was usually too shrewd to fall for it. If she was worried by it, it had to be true.

But what could make a house fly through the sky? Magic, certainly, but Elphaba was the only person able to read that cursed book. What else could do it? Freak occurrences. Natural disasters. A flood would sink it. Pressure would collapse it. What would lift it?

A storm perhaps. But the lightening would set it alight and the rain would sink it firmly into the mud. He growled in frustration, trying to really use his brain for the first time. The breeze caught his golden hair and he flattened it to his scalp with a gasp.

Wind. If a breeze could lift his hair then surely a gale could lift a house. He frowned. There had been no warning signs of extreme weather and surely not in the sunny little eastern refuge of Munchkinland. Someone had orchestrated it.

But who could do that to the weather?

He punched himself for lack of anyone else to do it for him. Morrible. Morrible controlled the weather. Conveniently, Elphaba's sister would be hit by a house and, of course, Elphaba would rush to her side if she was in any danger. And as a scheme, it sounded too ridiculous not to be true. Blinded by panic, Elphaba wouldn't see through it.

His hands shook. It wasn't a far trek to Munchkinland, only a few miles south. He could manage it by sunrise. Though Elphaba could manage it in minutes. He ran, carrying only the lantern with him, leaping over tree roots and wondering just what he was running into.

Danger, most certainly. Death; probably.

He stopped suddenly. It might be an idea to take the rifle. It was empty but there was no need for anyone to know that. He might even be able to look dashing with it. After all, no hero arrived at the scene of his suicide mission without at least pretending he was capable of making it out alive. Even if he did make it out alive, Elphaba would see to it that it was the last thing he did.

Still, he thought, picking up pace once more, he would have to go sometime and as last things to do went, this was a damn good thing last act.

Fiyero Tiggular had never given much thought to how he would die but as he looked out, bruised and broken, onto a blood red sunrise, he couldn't help but think that this was rather romantic.


	5. Love

**Disclaimer: See first chapter  
A/N: I know. I know. I said Wednesday but I have another project I want to start and 50 weeks is a long time.**

**Love**

"Love, Elphaba, is what separates us from the beasts."

Elphaba pursed her lips and drew in a deep breath. She smiled sarcastically. "Not the way you love."

Fiyero, sat beside her and bristling, snapped, "For someone who's never had sex with me, you seem to know an awful lot about my performance."

Elphaba raised her eyebrows. "I happen to sleep with your girlfriend."

Fiyero laughed. "Well, I've never had the analysis you have, clearly."

Elphaba merely flashed her eyebrows in response and her eyes immediately returned to the rather heavy volume they had been assigned to as part of a Life Sciences project. The topic was love and how it manifests itself in humans and Animals. It was a cause Elphaba was passionate about. Love was love. Full stop. She was terrified that someday someone was going to use the fact that she had never known it against her and if ever someone was willing to stoop that low, that someone was Fiyero Tiggular.

"So what's love for you then?"

She'd been proved right sooner that she had hoped. She shrugged and said casually, "I've never loved but I believe in it…I think."

Fiyero frowned. "Of course, you've loved. Everyone has loved. Your sister?"

"Devotion. She enjoys that." Elphaba bit her lip. "Come on, Fiyero. She hates me. She makes it obvious."

Fiyero made no comment. "Your parents then."

Elphaba smiled wistfully. "I remember my mother. I remember being held and told I was loved. I don't remember loving her. I didn't really understand her."

Fiyero's eyes softened and she could see the flecks of hazel and gold in them now. "El-"

"Of course, she barely knew her own name most of the time so I don't think she was actually feeling anything she told me she was. She probably had no idea who she was talking to."

"I-"

"But I love books. I love opening a new one and there's that new book smell. That's wonderful."

"Please-"

"But maybe because I don't know what it is, I shouldn't be arguing about it all the time. I just think Animals can talk and feel and react the same way as we do so why shouldn't they love like we do? Have you ever loved?"

Fiyero raised his eyebrows. "Have you ever let someone finish their sentence?"

Elphaba blushed and it really was the most delightful thing. He had thought the apples of her cheeks would flush emerald but they shone a rosy colour and the more he thought about it, the more his notion began to sound ridiculous. Her skin may be green but her blood was red, like his - like everyone's. She was the same as everyone else deep down.

She talked like he did. She felt like he did. She reacted like he did.

Surely, she had to love like he did too.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

Fiyero bit back his smile. He knew.


	6. Light

**Disclaimer: See first chapter.**

**A/N: Oh I am on a roll. **

Really he was quite giddy, decidedly weak at the knees. Fiyero scowled, not knowing what had come over him so or why he had reacted so violently to her touch. In contrast to his light headedness, his right arm was feeling a great deal of pain as though there was a great weight attached to it. He glanced down and found the cage still swinging in his hands.

"Go on. Shoo."

The Lion Cub stayed firm, cowering in the corner of its cage. Fiyero sighed and put the cage on the forest floor as gently as he could.

"Now look here. There are bears in this forest and I'm not staying with you. You can come out now and find somewhere to hide or you can sit in the cage and starve. Either way, I'm not sticking around because I'm juicier than you. I'm sorry. I hope everything works out okay for you."

He couldn't believe it. He was saying an emotional goodbye to a bloody Lion. If he hadn't known it before, he knew it now; there was something very persuasive about Miss Thropp and her arguments.

He wandered back through the forest and into the grounds of Shiz, outright ignoring Galinda's squeals of "Where _were_ you?" not because he intended to but because he was so utterly wrapped up in how _her _fingers felt against his cheek. He spun round and stared at Galinda, at her sapphire eyes, at her rosy cheeks. Perfect.

"Let's go for a walk."

He hoped she would clear his head and allow him to forget Elphaba. She had a tendency to make him forget things while she babbled on about people he didn't know or care about. It infuriated him because unfortunately, he tended to drift off and today he could only think of Elphaba. Before he knew it, he and Galinda were standing near the forest, he could stare at the very spot she had snapped at him. He shook his head and frowned.

"What do you think, dearest?"

Fiyero gasped and turned to Galinda who was obviously awaiting her answer. He had two options now. He could bluff it out or he could admit to having somewhat lecherous thoughts about her roommate.

"You know, Glinny, I've been confused about that one for ages. What do _you_ think?"

And she was off again, bitching about Shenshen's dress that was exactly the same as hers but in yellow.

"A travesty, darling."

Galinda smiled and squeezed his fingers. "I knew you'd agree."

He caught a flash of brilliant green through the trees and his heart beat in double time. She was here. Could she see him too? Yes. Blatantly.

And out of fear of emotion, he did the cruellest thing he had ever done. He tugged on Galinda's hand and pulled her back to him, smiling down at her as though she were his world. He kissed her, slowly, longingly…disturbingly detached from the experience and trying to convince himself this was right and they were perfect.

And still kneeling on the floor where he had left her, Elphaba ripped out the pink flower in her hair and allowed the rain to tangle her ebony curls. Only when she was sufficiently soaked and able to hide behind the weather, did she allow her tears to fall.

"Careful, my dear, you mustn't get wet."

Though her thoughts weighed heavy on her mind, she was still light headed as if she were walking in a dream.


	7. Lies

**Disclaimer: See first chapter**

**Lies**

"_That's not how you described it to me."_

Deep down, beyond the bubbly façade that she had painstakingly crafted for the sake of her beloved public, Glinda knew that all was not well in camp Tiggular. In fact, all was so unwell that she would say he was positively mad. Quite mad indeed.

He seemed to have forgotten what a razor was. He sported at least three days worth of stubble and she sincerely hoped he would remember in time for their ball. He had lost interest in both her anecdotes and her body. She knew nothing else of which to present to him, having given him everything.

On the rare occasions that he did take interest, she was certainly satisfied but the very instant that she was, he dressed, poured himself a drink and took to ambling along their balcony, muttering to himself.

He was beginning to show the telling signs of alcoholism. He reeked of whiskey in the evenings and he always drank alone. The early evenings began with brisk walks around the city - always alone - and she was convinced that was where his evening began. When he returned, he was slightly more open about his dependency, going so far as offering her a glass, which she always politely declined for fear she would take to it in the same way.

But tonight, she does not refuse and accepts the half full glass of amber liquid. She joins him on the balcony, allowing the night breeze to soothe her burning skin. The whiskey seems to set her blood on fire as she pours it down her throat. She chokes and earns herself a smile.

"You're not supposed to knock it back."

Glinda coughs lightly and blinks quickly, breathing in through her nose. She realises this is not an attractive look and shakes her head, smiling back.

"Here." He pours her another. "Now sip it slowly."

As the alcohol slowly warms her, she plucks up the courage to ask him what has been plaguing her for the past week. "Fiyero, are you an alcoholic?"

Fiyero laughs. "What gave you that idea?"

She can't help but notice that he has not denied her accusation. "Fiyero, are you?"

"Of course not," he snaps. He sees the hurt in her wide, azure eyes. She reminds of a kicked puppy and immediately, he softens. "I'm sorry, Lin."

Glinda shakes her head. "No. I shouldn't have assumed. Of course you're not."

They will be married remarkably soon for Morrible's ends, for good publicity. They are almost strangers now, sitting together, too afraid to really talk to the other. Fiyero sighs, thinking the whole situation to be ridiculous.

"Why do you lie?" he asks softly.

"Do you think I like-?"

"I didn't ask you whether you enjoyed it." His tone is not bitter or sharp and nor for that matter, is it entirely pleasant. Glinda shivers. "I asked you why you do it."

"I don't want that to be me," she says weakly. "I don't want to be lied about and appear on posters and have people say I'm an enemy. I don't want to hurt her, Fiyero but-"

He nods. "You like to be liked."

For the first time in months, they are being truly honest with one another and for the first time in their relationship, Fiyero feels as though he understands her. For the first time in weeks, they make love.

And too soon it is morning, and they're lying for their lives once more.


	8. Breakfast

**Disclaimer: See first chapter**

**A/N: So I was emotionally blackmailed into uploading this and indeed into writing it at midnight. This person knows who they are and the love hearts had better keep coming.**

**Breakfast**

The heat was almost unbearable. As guilty as she had felt, Elphaba couldn't help but envy Fiyero his inability to feel it as he bounced along, chipper as ever.

"I can get my body back, can't I?"

In truth, of course, she did not really know the answer. A spell could not be reversed and she had handed the Grimmarie to Glinda. Still, if there was a spell to turn a human being into an inanimate object then there must be a spell to turn an inanimate objects into a human being. Elphaba nodded wearily.

She did not speak her mind on the subject, wondering if he was really as carefree about the whole business as he claimed to be, but he answered her unasked question.

"I can eat then."

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Men," she muttered.

"I'll have pancakes, I think," he said, nodding to himself. "I miss pancakes. Do you miss pancakes? I do. I could eat a pancake right now."

Elphaba sighed. "I'll work on it, all right?"

Fiyero smiled and returned to his speculation. "And apple. Hmm, apple pancakes?"

Elphaba took a deep breath and mumbled to herself. "Do you ever let anyone else talk?"

Fiyero frowned. "That's rich."

He soon caught up with her as she stormed across the sand. "Er…sweetness, you do know you're going West now, don't you?"

Elphaba held her head up. " I'm the Wicked Witch of it. That's where we'll go."

"But we were going to Ix."

She turned on her heel and snapped. "All right. I'm lost. This is hopeless." She collapsed onto a rock and hid her head in her hands.

"You know what's good in these situations?"

Elphaba inhaled deeply through her nose. "If you say pancakes, I swear to Oz-"

Fiyero grinned. "Breakfast." He smirked. "Though pancakes would be a sub-category, I suppose."


	9. Storm

**Disclaimer: See First Chapter**

**A/N: Apologies this is so late.**

**Storm**

The last time the weather had raged around her, she had assumed it was a natural occurrence, a rare thing that she had little control over. She had been sitting in her bed, her dorm room at Shiz, wrapping the covers round her and burying her face in her pillow, whimpering as the wind whipped the trees, splattering their leaves across her window.

This time, she sat in the attic of a small building in the business district with nothing but a patched, moth-eaten blanket to protect her from the bitter cold. She lay on a wooden floor, shivering and wishing she could open her eyes and find herself back in her dorm room, listening to the thumping on her door that showed her somebody cared when she whimpered with fright.

The fact that that somebody was now rising up the ranks of the Gale Force at an alarming rate prevented her from believing the pounding around her was knocking. Indeed, she would have been a great deal more afraid if she had heard it. Guests, always unwelcome, terrified her even more in the darkness.

She risked no light and barely even breathed. Her eyes darted in the black night, though what she hoped to see was a mystery even to her. For what fugitive in the right mind wished to be found by the very man told to lock her away in Southstairs?

She bit her lip. _This_ fugitive, apparently.

Elphaba closed her eyes, holding back the waves of pain that lapped at the soul she tried to deny herself. He was not going to suddenly appear when she was incredibly grateful that he hadn't the faintest clue where she was. He was not about to cradle her until the sounds of the storm were muffled by his soothing sentiments. He was certainly not going to whisk her away toward a setting sun on the horizon.

They were no longer at Shiz and she wasn't entirely convinced that Fiyero had flirted with her at all. Indeed, the more she thought about it, the less likely it seemed. He was being friendly. He was probably acting on orders Glinda had given to watch her.

Elphaba sighed, daring to break the silence in the little room. An irrational part of her still could not but wonder whether he was thinking about her, wherever he was. Was he thinking of her patrolling the streets, her hair windswept, wet and sticking to her face. Was he thinking of her burning cages and creating safe havens?

Or worse, was he thinking of her hunched in a corner, her threadbare blanket barely covering her as she pushed her knees up to her chest and cradled them there, shaking with fear and crying silently but desperately like the vulnerable young woman she truly was?

Elphaba felt shivers up her spine - different shivers. Her eyes widened with fear.

The Captain of the Gale Force - the Captain of the sodding Gale Force - knew her weakness.

She wondered why he had been chosen when the last time she had seen him, he was incapable of any form of responsibility and she had wondered whether he could even spell it.

Well, now she knew.


	10. Electricity

**Disclaimer: See First Chapter.**

**A/N: Where have I been? Indeed, that is a very good question. One that I don't really have an answer to. Sorry and thanks to anyone who's stuck with this through sporadic updates. I promise I won't leave it this long again.**

**10. Electricity**

The Scarecrow woke up to find himself with fingernails.

The sheer oddity of this in itself would set the tone for the remainder of the day, wandering through the desert, and scrounging for scraps of food, wondering where their destination lay - what their destination was.

"How's my hair? Do I look like a tramp?"

Elphaba wanted to reply with something other than a whimper, but words truly escaped her. She wanted a sarcastic retort to make itself immediately known, but finally she had succeeded. Finally, something she had attempted a spell that had not ended in disaster.

"How?"

Fiyero grinned back at her. "What do you mean 'how'? You did it. That last spell must have worked. What the hell do I care how it happened? It did, that's all that matters. Unless there's some sort of quid pro quo, like at midnight I turn into a pumpkin or something."

Elphaba smiled grimly. "I wouldn't rule it out just yet."

"Ah, there's the cynic I know and love." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. "I was wondering when she'd come out to play. I've missed her."

Elphaba winced. "I think I preferred you before. You were a lot softer."

Fiyero smirked. "Oh, I don't know. I'd say this me has his perks. I mean, can you imagine having sex with an animated bag of straw? It would be horrendous, and quite possibly illegal too."

Elphaba raised her eyebrows. "And how would you know? Tried it, have you?"

Fiyero sighed. "Fabala, there are some things - like cottage cheese - that I don't have to try to know they don't work. The basic act of continuing the species has never really occurred to a Scarecrow, a flaw so huge that it probably deserves to be mentioned twice."

Elphaba rolled her eyes, but her smile was wide. "And pray tell, how does cottage cheese baffle you?"

"Because it looks like something someone's already brought up, rather than something I would take in." He shuddered. "I don't have to try it. I've only got to look at it to realise that it looks like regurgitated bread, and is therefore about as appealing."

Even when he was disgusted, with his lips curled back and his nose wrinkled, he was disturbingly attractive, and Elphaba had to wonder what on earth he was doing with her.

She could only assume that he felt what she did, something she had felt since the first time they had touched; the tingle in her fingertips, the hairs rising on the back of her neck, and the rapid beating in her chest.

The electric current.


	11. Fly

**Disclaimer: See first chapter**

**A/N: I am so, so, so, sorry. Thank you everyone who voted this into second place for Best Wicked One Hundred. I'm sorry I let this die. Though this time I mean it when I say it won't happen again.**

**A/N: Not my best and very short but I just wanted to get back into this.**

**1) I will update this once a week - on a Sunday again.**

**2) I will remember to reply to reviews (seriously, you don't know scatterbrained I am)**

**3) I will stick to my New Year's Resolutions.**

**Particular thank you to Dee who gave me this prompt and nagged me back into writing this.**

**11: Fly**

The wind whipped through his hair and instinctively his arms wrapped around Elphaba's waist.

"You're not scared, are you?" she shouted back.

Fiyero shook his head. He wasn't scared at all. He was petrified. He didn't trust himself to speak and moving was certainly out of the question.

"No," he replied, his voice trembling.

"Liar!"

She laughed and he could not help but grin inanely back at her. There was something about her laughter, something so unlike Glinda's giggle, that made the butterflies in the pit of his stomach burst into a dance number.

"Are you all right?" she asked him, knowing the answer. Elphaba reached around awkwardly, wondering if offering her hand was too much.

"Both hands on the broomstick, please."

Inwardly, she sighed with relief. Outwardly, she clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. "What scares you so much?"

"The fact that I'm a hundred feet above the ground with a fugitive who refuses to steer properly."

"If I lost a little height, would you feel better?"

"It would be a start, yes."

She dived toward the ground and giggled almost girlishly as she felt his arms tighten around her and heard him whisper prayers to himself.

Fiyero managed to whimper but all other forms of communication had left him. He had discovered her sense of humour and he realised why she was called 'wicked'.

"How far away are we?"

Elphaba smiled back at him, almost apologetically. "Would you like to feel your feet on the ground again?"

"Oh, I don't know where you got that impression."

If flying terrified him, it was nothing compared to landing. Landing was a living hell. Balancing on a broom that was heading toward a forest at a rate of knots almost caused him to blackout.

"If you ever do that to me again," he said, rolling off the broom and lying facedown on the forest floor, his words muffled by fallen leaves, "you can stop worrying about the Gale Force and start running from me."

Flying, he decided, was not something he was about to take up as a hobby.


	12. Silence

**Disclaimer: See first chapter**

**Silence**

The library was a magnificent refuge; tall, dusty, somewhat neglected, full of books and spooky enough to keep most prying idiots well away. Elphaba chose a chair far from the fire, its sparks casting fleeting beams of light across her face. In the darkness she almost looked normal.

She glanced at her reflection in the window. She still had her pointed chin and her nose that she claimed was akin to the prow of a ship. She still had her thin lips and wild hair, but she almost looked like an ugly Galinda.

She sighed and turned her attentions back to her book, casting furtive glances toward her reflection. She was captivated by the luminescent pearl skin tone gazing at her in the window, the blonde locks, the sea green eyes, the…

Hang on a tick.

"AAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

Fiyero raised his hands, palms facing her. "Whoa! What in Oz's name?"

Elphaba gasped for breath, her heart racing. "You startled me."

"I startle everyone. It's the cross I bear. Still, if you're going to be this gorgeous, you've got to pay the price."

Unimpressed, Elphaba noisily turned her page.

"So what are you reading?"

She lifted the book and allowed him to read the title.

"I know it's a book. What _is_ it?"

Her jaw clenched and Fiyero only smirked.

"If it has escaped your notice, you are in a library. People come here to work and you are disturbing them."

Fiyero glanced around the library. "Lucky there's no-one here then, aren't I?"

"_I_ am here. You are disturbing _me_!" Elphaba snapped.

"Yes, but that was the plan."

Elphaba took a deep breath, flaring her nostrils. Immediately, she stopped when she caught sight of her reflection and realised how unattractive a gesture it made.

"And why was that your plan?"

Fiyero shrugged. "I'm bored."

"Don't you have someone else you can bother?"

"I have several people I can bother but I want to bother you."

"Should I be flattered or scared?"

"Scared. Definitely scared."

Elphaba slammed the book shut and clicked her tongue as the dust burst into the air around her and fell like little meteorites; little treacherous meteorites that cried out she had not been reading but gazing in awe at her skin in the darkness.

"What do you want, Tiggular?"

Fiyero laughed. "We're dropping the honorific, I see. How charming."

She almost growled at him and Fiyero laughed nervously.

"I was er…I was just wondering if…um…I should change to Philosophy. I mean, I'm good at it. It's just sitting and thinking and-"

Elphaba shook her head. "I have no doubt that you are exceptional when it comes to just sitting, but _thinking_? A case of biting off more than you chew there, I think."

Fiyero frowned. "I'm not doing very well in Science-"

Elphaba raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps if you spent a little more time in here."

"I can't stand it," he admitted. "It's quiet and if there's one thing I hate, it's silence. It spooks me out."

Elphaba laughed cynically. "Silence spooks you? That's the worst excuse I think you have ever come out with." She pursed her lips and added, "With the possible exception of 'Perhaps he saw green and thought it meant 'Go!'"

Fiyero grinned. "I liked that one."

"_You_ would."

"I was only teasing, you know."

"Oh, I've heard a lot worse than that."

Fiyero frowned. "Couldn't you just shut people up? You know, use those spooky little vibes of yours and shut them up."

She smirked. "I could but I know how it would frighten you if everyone was forced into silence."

He smiled at her. "So about Philosophy…"

Elphaba sighed deeply. "Switch from Life Sciences to Philosophy?" She frowned. "You sit next to me in Life Sciences, don't you?"

Fiyero nodded.

"Yes, switch. I would."

He smirked. "Though at least when I'm next to you and I copy, I can be sure I'm getting the right answers. I think maybe I'll stick it out and see what happens. Thanks, Elphie."

Elphaba winced. "Please. If I have just saved your future, you owe me. Don't call me by that ridiculous nickname. It doesn't suit me."

"OK. Thanks, Fabala."

For the first time in her life, Elphaba was speechless.

On his way out of the gothic university library, Fiyero shuddered. Silence was bad enough, but a silent Elphaba usually spelt trouble. For him.


	13. Zodiac

**Disclaimer: See first chapter**

**A/N: Sorry. Again. Real life took over. Though I got a call-back audition to college so I haven't been wasting my time, promise.**

"What's your sign?"

Elphaba sighed. "Master Tiggular, that is not the most original of pick-up lines. I expected better."

Fiyero laughed, lying back on the banks of the lake, his hair tussled and eyes twinkling.

"No, really. I have a trashy magazine and I'm not afraid to use it."

Elphaba pursed her lips. "You shouldn't read other people's horoscopes. It's bad luck."

Fiyero scoffed. "You don't believe in bad luck."

"Only when it suits me." She smirked. "And at the moment, what suits me is finishing my essay. I'll bet you haven't even started."

"Of course I haven't. I'm waiting for you to do it so I can-"

"-copy?" Elphaba raised an eyebrow.

Fiyero propped himself up, leaning on his elbows. "Miss Thropp, only teachers call it copying."

"I see. What do _you_ call it?"

Fiyero grinned. "Teamwork."

Elphaba threw her pencil at his head and bit back her smile when it bounced (rather beautifully, she thought) off his forehead and into the long grass where he immediately caught hold of it and refused to give it back on the basis that it was now classified as a weapon.

"If I can't finish it, how will you copy?"

He cleared his throat meaningfully.

"What I mean is, of course, how can we work as a team?"

"That's more like it. Tell me what your star sign is and I'll think about giving it back."

Elphaba frowned. "You'll laugh."

"What's to laugh about? It's just a star sign. You're paranoid."

Elphaba merely looked at him and said, "Aquarius."

Fiyero snorted but bit back his grin.

"I told you. Keep the damn pencil." Elphaba stood, with all the grace of a drunken gazelle, and gathered her things. "You can wait for Galinda on your own. I'll be in the Library doing some real work and I'm not letting you look at it this time."

Fiyero rolled his eyes. "You said that last time."

"Yes, but this time I _mean_ it."

"Oh, Elphie, come back. Sit down. Come on. I'm sorry. You have to admit that it is very ironic."

Elphaba smiled ruefully. "I suppose."

"And you didn't give me much time to compose myself." He got to his feet and held his hands out. "I'm a Leo. My star sign doesn't match who I am either. I've got 'Doormat' tattooed all over me."

Elphaba smirked. "Oh, is that what all those diamonds spell out? Is it a magic picture?"

Fiyero beamed, pleased to be back in her favour. "My body has been likened to many things, Miss Thropp, though 'magic picture' has never yet been one of them. Come on. Come and sit down. If you're good, I might even read you your horoscope."

Elphaba returned his smile and sat beside him. "So what does it say?"

"A handsome Leo will give you a gift."

Elphaba raised her eyebrow. "Oh really?"

Fiyero handed her the pencil. "You see? These things know more than you think they do."

"Does it also say that said handsome Leo will soon be rolled down the hill into the water if he continues to harass Aquarians?"

"No, but it _does_ say that sexual tension will peak for Aquarians this week."

Elphaba raised her eyebrows. "Would that be with handsome Leos or is no-one safe from my hormones?"

"You could always practice on me. You seem to be a pick-up line expert. Maybe I might learn a thing or two."

"You might, but since you are already in a relationship, is there a point in learning any more?"

Fiyero shrugged. "You never know."

"Besides," said Elphaba, returning to her essay, "I have stronger romantic inclinations toward my left foot than toward you."

"Oh, to be your left foot."

Elphaba casually leant toward him and pushed him down the slight slope into the lake and as he emerged, sodden hair clinging to his face, she said, "You see? These things know more than you give them credit for."


	14. Activist

**Disclaimer: See first chapter.**

**A/N: A very belated Happy Birthday to Dee. Sorry, I took so long. In honour of the event, I have decided to ditch the angst originally planned for this chapter.**

**A/N: Also, particular thanks to twilighterjf4eva for all the lovely reviews left last week.**

**14. Activist**

"I just don't know how to behave."

Fiyero laughed. "Then don't. I much prefer it when you misbehave."

Elphaba glared at him, her lips pressed firmly together. "All right, I'll rephrase. I don't know how to act around you. I'm not very good at this sort of thing."

Her words were swallowed by the thick forest and Fiyero stepped towards her, alarmed when she stepped further from him, wringing her hands.

"What?" she asked, her eyes wide with fear. "What's the matter with you?"

Fiyero raised his eyebrows. "I could ask you the same. Who did this to you?"

"Did what to me?"

"Made you physically recoil when your personal space gets a little crowded?"

Elphaba scoffed. "I'll give you three guesses." She shivered in the cold night air and smiled to herself as she realised this must be what girls did at Shiz to make their boyfriends hand over their jackets.

"Are you cold?"

Elphaba nodded and expected (as he had no jacket to give) the feel of his arms around her. She was somewhat disheartened by his announcement that he would light a fire.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"For what?"

"Lots of things. Everything. Nothing."

Fiyero frowned but said nothing and turned his attention to the small pile of dry twigs he was trying to set alight with the flame from the lantern she had thrust upon him. They refused to light and he sighed irritably.

"Presumably a wicked witch knows how to play with fire?"

Elphaba blinked, startled from her reverie. "Oh, of course. I'm sorry."

"Would you do something for me?"

She nodded.

"Would you stop apologising for things you have no control over? It infuriates me."

Elphaba blushed. "Sorry. I mean, yes. I mean, no. I mean…what's it you anyway? I didn't _ask_ you to follow me. You don't have to be here. If I annoy you that much, go home!"

Fiyero only laughed softly. "You don't infuriate me. The habit infuriates me and the habit is a learned behaviour. That's not your fault. That's the fault of everyone who ever made you apologise for your existence or made you feel small; your father, your sister, my friends, me. So you know what, maybe I should be the one who's apologising. I'm sorry."

Stunned, Elphaba only nodded.

"Now, please, before I slowly freeze to death, could you do something with my twigs?"

"_Your_ twigs?" Elphaba smiled at him, her dark eyes twinkling as Fiyero's eyes popped at the sight of a fireball in her hand, illuminating her skin and making it appear lime green.

She knelt in front of the fire, pulling her cloak around her.

"I thought you were cold," she said.

"How can you stand the burning?" Fiyero asked, kneeling beside her. "Doesn't it hurt?"

"Not anymore. You get used to it. I don't keep it there long." She grinned. "Oh, and what's all this about behaviour patterns?"

"Believe it or not, I managed to pass Philosophy."

"You switched?"

He nodded. "After you left I didn't have anyone to get the answers from."

Elphaba rolled her eyes.

"And truth be told, I couldn't stand Nikidik. I didn't like his ideas so I told him and after I wrote a paper about Animal rights, we didn't really see eye to eye."

Elphaba laughed. "I can't imagine you as an activist."

"No. No-one could. I think that's why he was so shocked."

"Well, at least now I know why you came with me."

Fiyero sighed. "Because I'm an activist? Silly girl. I came with you because I love you."


	15. Dark

**Disclaimer: See first chapter.**

**Dark**

"I-I have to go."

The night air whipped her ebony curls into a tangled mess, as though trying to undo all of Galinda's hard work of their own volition. Elphaba gasped for breath and ripped the flower from her hair, flinging it onto the frost-coated grass.

Robbed of her sight, Elphaba's hearing became immensely accurate. She heard the whisper of trees swaying in the cool breeze. She heard the sound of an owl calling from the nearby forest. She heard the soft tinkling of fresh water, the sound of the lake's wildlife playing by the light of a harvest moon.

The world was so peaceful at night. She liked the darkness. She felt a little more normal when her skin glowed translucent, alabaster and average.

She stiffened, the hairs on the back of her neck leaping to attention as she heard the sound of steady and sure footsteps on the pathway. They became gradually louder until she could hear the even breathing and caress of soft fabrics, moving against one another.

Such faint and delicate sounds were replaced by whistling. The owner of said feet was whistling a catchy and irritating tune.

Elphaba stepped back into the shadows and waited for him to pass.

"Galinda?"

Elphaba sighed irritably. "No. She leant it to me. Give it back." She held out her palm and waited for Fiyero's laughter, aware that she looked utterly ridiculous in make-up. She looked as if she was trying to be pretty and there was nothing worse than an ugly monstrosity trying to look attractive and failing miserably.

Fiyero raised his eyebrows. "She leant it to you?"

"Yes. Now give it back."

"I didn't think it was your sort of thing."

Elphaba blushed a furious crimson. "It's not. I just…I go along with things for an easy life."

Fiyero grinned. "Yes. So do I."

Reluctant to admit they were anything alike, Elphaba pursed her lips and flashed her eyebrows. Her long fingers stretched further toward him, indicating he ought to hand over the pink flower.

Fiyero narrowed his eyes and leant in closer, peering at her eyes and frowning in confusion. "Miss Thropp, are you wearing mascara?"

"So what if I am!"

He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "It was an innocent inquiry."

"I let Galinda play dress-up with me."

Unable to help himself, Fiyero laughed. "Now _that_ I would pay good money to see in action."

He laughed alone.

"Could I have it back please? If you're going to laugh at me, I'd rather that you didn't do it to my face."

He fell immediately silent. "Why would I laugh at you?"

Elphaba frowned, casting her dark eyes to the cold stone floor. "Is it not obvious? I look utterly ridiculous."

"I beg to differ," said Fiyero, pinning the flower into place behind Elphaba's ear. "I think you look breathtaking."

"I always do in the darkness," Elphaba admitted. "You can't see so much of me and my nose looks less like the prow of a ship."

"You have a lovely nose."

Elphaba wrinkled it in response. "Are you sure you are well? You haven't been drinking, have you?"

"I most certainly have," answered Fiyero, "and I'm much happier for it. I make a very pleasant drunk. I'm a total bastard when I'm sober."

Elphaba pursed her lips. "Yes, I know."

"If we were being polite, the thing to say might have been 'Of course you're not, Fiyero. You're charming, intelligent, heartbreakingly attractive and witty'."

Elphaba shook her head. "That's not being polite. That's lying."

Fiyero laughed. "I'll say this for you, you don't mince your words, do you?"

Elphaba shrugged. "What would be the point? Besides, no-one minces their words for my benefit. Why should I do it for theirs?"

"Because with beauty and brains, Elphaba, you can look like a bit of a bitch if you're not unbelievably nice to people."

"You get away with it."

"Ah," said Fiyero, smiling sadly, "but I'm lacking in the brain cell department. I'm afraid I was out to lunch when the Unnamed God was handing out brains." He began to whistle the same irritating tune.

Elphaba smiled back, unable to resist.

"I could while away the hours, conferring with the flowers, consulting with the rain."

Elphaba raised an eyebrow.

"Doo doo doo doo doo doo. And my…er…my head I'd be scratching, while…" He trailed off. "What rhymes with 'scratching'?"

Elphaba, deciding to humour him on the basis that she had humiliated herself enough in one night not to care for the consequences, sang along. "While my thoughts were busy hatching."

Fiyero nodded his appreciation. "That's a good one. While my thoughts were busy hatching, if I only had a brain."

Elphaba laughed. "For someone lacking a brain, I have to say, that was very clever."

"Thank you. If ever I'm forced to abdicate, it's good to know I have a back-up career as a traveling minstrel to fall back on."

Elphaba laughed. "But what would you do when you couldn't think of your next line?"

"Why I'd simply kidnap you. We could go on tour."

"Really, Master Tiggular, you are quite ridiculous."

Fiyero shrugged. "I'm not the one hiding in the dark throwing flowers out of my hair at three o'clock in the morning. Incidentally, what are you doing out here?"

"Hiding from Galinda."

"Do you want me to walk you back?"

Elphaba shook her head.

"Tough. Let's go."

He took hold of her arm and led her through the darkness that, truth be told, her eyes had adjusted to, but it felt like nothing on earth to be touched by another human being who did not shrink away at the sight of her obscene skin tone.

Too soon for her liking, Elphaba found herself standing outside her dorm room door.

"Well," said Fiyero, grinning broadly, "here we are."

Elphaba nodded. "Thank you."

"My pleasure." He leant down and kissed her cheek. "Goodnight."

He turned and headed down the corridor. Elphaba stood completely still, her hand clasping her reddening cheek, tracing the small spot that his lips had graced only seconds before.

"Elphie?"

Elphaba jumped. "Er…yes?"

"Did I happen to mention where I was going?"

Elphaba shook her head.

"Damn."

"Maybe you oughtn't drink so much," Elphaba suggested.

"Yes," agreed Fiyero. "Or maybe you oughtn't distract me so."

He winked at her and Elphaba blushed, her heart hammering as she turned her key in the door.

She liked the dark. It was easier for everyone else to pretend she was normal.


End file.
